Over 1 million foreigners including refugees live in Istanbul: Governor

ISTANBUL

There are a total of 1.18 million foreigners in Istanbul, including 535,000 Syrians under temporary protection, Governor Ali Yerlikaya has said.

Yerlikaya was responding to the city’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, who recently claimed that 2.5 million foreigners, including those with residence permits and refugees, live in Istanbul. As of Nov. 1, there are nearly 645,000 foreign nationals with residency permits as well as 535,000 Syrians in the city, Yerlikaya said. 

This year, authorities took action against 52,000 foreigners as part of the fight against irregular migration, and more than 19,000 people have been sent back to their countries, according to the governor. 

The Directorate General of Migration Management also issued a statement in response to İmamoğlu’s claims, confirming the data provided by Yerlikaya regarding the foreign population in Istanbul, which is home to more than 16 million people.

The directorate additionally revealed that 2,400 foreign nationals are living in the city as conditional refugees. It also said that there are 5.3 million foreigners, including those with residence permits, under temporary protection and refugees across Turkey.

As of October, the number of Syrians under temporary protection stood at 3.7 million, according to the directorate. After Istanbul, the second largest Syrian population is in the southeastern province of Gaziantep at nearly 459,000, followed by neighboring Hatay at 437,000.